Part of the problem is really the presence of NATO, specifically America, in the Middle East. It props up various states like Saudi Arabia which the local population itself often doesn't care for. There are a lot of grievances with respect to ongoing atrocities and activities carried out by the west and her ally Israel. All of this fuels a sense of alienation and a perceived need to rectify injustices. Everyone in the ME knows the circumstances of the Palestinians, but who are you going to call for help? The UN? ME states are not going to get too involved with the US hovering over everything.

So, a lot of people sense great injustice committed against them. They are united by religion. They see there are potential alternatives to present arrangements that would benefit them greatly and are pursuing them. Islamism appeals to some people not because they're brainwashed (no more than Communists were in the 20th century), but because it promises them and their family justice in the face of injustice and oppression. The same applied to the active members of Communist movements in the 20th century.

This is unfortunately something a lot of people don't want to admit: a lot of Muslims might actually have legitimate grievances.

The thing is that if the west stepped away from the ME tomorrow it'd fall on its face in short while. The strategic interests there are too great to risk, which explains all the military bases operating over there and ongoing hostile activities on the part of NATO. There is the political will for the US to strike Iran and get away with it minus a few protests which will amount to hooliganism and not much else. Most people on this forum who had a government which participated in such an attack would still pay their taxes I bet.

So, you have an international movement retaliating against a system that doesn't work for them. When the Muslims are in Burma are attacked and the international community sits idly by, the Buddhists in India get bombed. That kind of cross-national unity reflects an international problem, the causes of which are quite complex, but related in part to how you and I allow for a lot of atrocities and injustices to be committed so we can enjoy high standards of living through ME oil, which is a geopolitical arrangement that inevitably leaves a lot of people in the ditch completely disenfranchised.

I don't really see a solution. It is a predicament and you can only manage damage control.

It's very hard to get toothpaste back into the tube. The persons responsible should be treated as criminals. Do not let terror and irrationality take hold. Perhaps we can ask the NSA for their phone and email.

Indrajala wrote:Part of the problem is really the presence of NATO, specifically America, in the Middle East. It props up various states like Saudi Arabia which the local population itself often doesn't care for. There are a lot of grievances with respect to ongoing atrocities and activities carried out by the west and her ally Israel. All of this fuels a sense of alienation and a perceived need to rectify injustices. Everyone in the ME knows the circumstances of the Palestinians, but who are you going to call for help? The UN? ME states are not going to get too involved with the US hovering over everything.

So, a lot of people sense great injustice committed against them. They are united by religion. They see there are potential alternatives to present arrangements that would benefit them greatly and are pursuing them. Islamism appeals to some people not because they're brainwashed (no more than Communists were in the 20th century), but because it promises them and their family justice in the face of injustice and oppression. The same applied to the active members of Communist movements in the 20th century.

This is unfortunately something a lot of people don't want to admit: a lot of Muslims might actually have legitimate grievances.

The thing is that if the west stepped away from the ME tomorrow it'd fall on its face in short while. The strategic interests there are too great to risk, which explains all the military bases operating over there and ongoing hostile activities on the part of NATO. There is the political will for the US to strike Iran and get away with it minus a few protests which will amount to hooliganism and not much else. Most people on this forum who had a government which participated in such an attack would still pay their taxes I bet.

So, you have an international movement retaliating against a system that doesn't work for them. When the Muslims are in Burma are attacked and the international community sits idly by, the Buddhists in India get bombed. That kind of cross-national unity reflects an international problem, the causes of which are quite complex, but related in part to how you and I allow for a lot of atrocities and injustices to be committed so we can enjoy high standards of living through ME oil, which is a geopolitical arrangement that inevitably leaves a lot of people in the ditch completely disenfranchised.

I don't really see a solution. It is a predicament and you can only manage damage control.

May the eyes of living beings be gladdened by skies made splendid by clouds that lightnings garland, while on earth below, the peacocks dance with joy as showers of rain, falling gently, approach.

Indrajala wrote:So, a lot of people sense great injustice committed against them. They are united by religion. They see there are potential alternatives to present arrangements that would benefit them greatly and are pursuing them. Islamism appeals to some people not because they're brainwashed (no more than Communists were in the 20th century), but because it promises them and their family justice in the face of injustice and oppression. The same applied to the active members of Communist movements in the 20th century.

This is unfortunately something a lot of people don't want to admit: a lot of Muslims might actually have legitimate grievances.

True.

However, on this particular incident, also consider that Islam and Buddhism has had a very loooong history of opposition (i.e. the burning of the Nalanda University -- something that had extremely serious consequences for buddhism.)

Of course, so far we don't know what was the actual motivation on this incident.

Have you heard the news???? Blasts at Bodhagaya [by Santosh SinghThe Indian Express Group July 8, 2013 !!!]

In what is suspected to be the first-ever terror attack in Bihar, nine low-intensity blasts struck Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya early Sunday, leaving a Tibetan student and a Burmese resident who were meditating there injured. The temple structure was not damaged in the attack. Three live bombs were later recovered from near the temple premises.

Four of the bombs went off inside the Mahabodhi complex, on either side of the temple. The first blast took place near the Bodhi tree, located behind the sanctum sanctorum, at 5.25 am, as per CCTV records. Within the next two minutes, three other bombs went off, at Maa Tara temple in front of the main temple entrance, near a peepal tree towards the north of the temple and inside an ambulance parked near the Butter Lamp House.

The other bombs struck near the temple complex, between 5.40 am and 7.45 am.

Vilasa GGA, a 26-year-old research scholar from Bodhgaya-based Myanmar Buddhist Academy Centre, and Tenzing Dorjee (60), a staffer of Nigma temple, were injured in the first blast. They suffered splinter injuries and are now out of danger.

All the bombs had timer devices, with instructions on where to place them written in Urdu on them. For example, the fifth bomb, that targeted Bodhgaya's signature 80-ft Buddha statue — located a kilometre away from the Mahabodi temple complex — had "bada but (big statue)" scribbled on it. Most of the blasts were caused by cylinder bombs, and some were packed in plastic bags. Each weighed around 1 kg.

No group has so far taken responsibility, though intelligence officials are probing the role of Indian Mujahideen. Some of its alleged activists held for the 2012 Pune blasts had reportedly confessed to planning an attack on the Mahabodhi temple. Sketches of two suspects were released in the evening.

I agree the US supported the Saudis who exported fundamentalism with their petrodollars and is way too involved in the ME.As well as Europe. And before the US was Great Britain in the Middle East and fighting with Russia over Afghanistan. And before that was Arab colonialism. That's the Arab tribes who imported by jihad their language and religion from Spain to North Africa to Indonesia. No different than the West. And I can tell you that my Iranian Zoroastrian friends hate that their culture was arabicized. So where is the terrorism and seething resentment of Arab colonialism? India seems to have handled it pretty well and look at Malaysia and Indonesia. Wait they're making it hard for peoples of other religions to have some kind of plurality. China has problems with the Muslims there as well. Muslims seemingly in many countries aren't happy as minorities and oppress when they are the majority. Try building a Jewish temple in Indonesia, not allowed.

So where did Islam so enlightened in Cordoba also with math, astronomy, poetry fall off the rails?. Many say when the Mu'tazilites, who believed in Qu'ranic exegesis based on logic and rationalism, who said the Qu'ran was created, were defeated. Saying and believing that the Qu'ran is the uncreated word of god means no modernization nor analysis nor other methodologies and Islam became intellectually stuck.

Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu Chih-I:The Tai-ching states "the women in the realms of Mara, Sakra and Brahma all neither abandoned ( their old) bodies nor received (new) bodies. They all received buddhahood with their current bodies (genshin)" Thus these verses state that the dharma nature is like a great ocean. No right or wrong is preached (within it) Ordinary people and sages are equal, without superiority or inferiority Paul, Groner "The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture"eds. Tanabe p. 58

I think it is considerable and serious damage when tibetan buddhist scriptures were burned on the Nalanda university, with the consequence that some centuries-old techings -with no other source available- were lost forever. It's not exactly the same as burning "just books", as in ordinary buddhist books. I understand his position, because Ajahn Brahm is from Theravada, a different tradition where there's no need for a plethora of different esoteric teachings aimed to specific circumstances and practitioner capacities.

Surely you can't kill buddhism, but look at the situation, for example, for Tibetan Buddhists in China. The government didn't exactly "kill" tibetan buddhism there, but when you destroy lineages of teachers so the people have no Rinpoche in their land, then the damage is actual, real, and immense.

If this is a virtual sangha, do we achieve virtualization instead of realization?

I would just like to point out to everyone discussing Muslim-Buddhist sectarian violence that as of this posting the perpetrators of the bombing are unknown. No group, Islamic or otherwise, has claimed responsibility for the violence. Thus any talk about linking these attacks to Islamic extremists is purely speculative at this point.

Perhaps it says something about certain people's assumptions that the perpetrators are believed to be Muslim, and that this discussion has so quickly degenerated into posts about whether Islam is inherently violent, clash of civilizations, etc.

If the culprits are the Indian Mujahedin or a similiar Islamist group, it seems odd to me that they are not taking credit for their actions. If their goal is to retaliate for sectarian violence in Myanmar, as some posters here have speculated, one would think they would want to make this known, to draw publicity for their cause.

Personally, I think a more interesting line of speculation is the one brought up by Rakshasa, which so far nobody has commented on:

Rakshasa wrote:It is even possible that it was perpetrated by some Hindu fundamentalist outfits like VHP, Bajrang Dal etc to stir some shit or take revenge from Bihar's CM's ceasing the alliance with BJP. Usually such low intensity home made explosives are the work of Hindu fundamentalists who have been caught many times in the past already while manufacturing them across India.

The Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, recently ended a political alliance with the BJP party. The BJP is now trying to frame this as a failure of Mr. Kumar's administration as well as a broader failure of Bihar's government and the rival Congress party. From The Hindu:

The BJP on Sunday attacked the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar for not acting on repeated intelligence inputs regarding possible terrorist attack on the revered Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya town.

Two weeks after the 17-year-old alliance between the BJP and the Janata Dal-United snapped, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the Nitish Kumar-led government has to answer why it did not take any action despite being warned that terror modules were planning to attack the 1,500-year-old temple annually visited by millions from across the world.

This may simply be a case of a political party taking advantage of an event to attack a rival. But it also strikes me as quite possible that the BJP was somehow involved in the attacks with the intent of making Kumar's government look bad. The attacks will of course be blamed on Muslim groups, leaving the BJP free to pontificate against both Kumar and the threat of Islam.

Perhaps there even was a Muslim group involved, and the BJP either turned a blind eye or perhaps provided them with some kind of logistical support. I could imagine a scenario where a small, weak, unknown jihadist group collaborates with a more seasoned network of Hindu fundamentalists with the understanding that the jihadist group will eventually take the credit/blame for the attack (boosting their image and notoriety in jihadist circles) while the BJP gets a perfect opportunity to take down a rival. Politics can make strange bedfellows.

We will, of course, have to see what the investigation turns up, if indeed it turns up anything at all. Security is a joke in many places in India and there is no doubt some truth in the BJP's criticisms of the Bihar government.

No, it doesn't translate at all.Here in the written form, not knowing each other, it is not possible to distinguish sarkasm and satire from serious meant writing.I'm very glad to read that you didn't mean it.

I figured the "i'm not being prejudiced" after writing an incredibly xenophobic trail of nonsense would give it away as sarcastic, but it didn't read that way I guess.

Yes, it looked funny - but i see people write so much nonsense shit when they are guided by their ego. It is not possible to distigiush.

Still no leads on the bombings according to Indian media. We are told by the Indian Home Minister that "three or four people may be involved...with a car." That hardly narrows down the suspects, now does it? So much for the "detailed" probe of the blasts.

Judging from this article from The Times of India, it sounds like the investigation is not being given much priority. It also appears to be becoming increasingly politicized, with the involvement of Congress Party officials no doubt to counter the BJP's earlier reactions:

Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who visited the bomb blast sites along with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Congress leader Ambika Soni, said a "detailed" probe was being carried out by the National Investigation Agency(NIA).

Asked about any involvement of Naxals in the Gaya blasts, he said, "There are so many complex problems. Infiltration from other countries is there, Naxalites are there, local communal disturbances are there. We have to see all angles."

Shinde said the NIA, which has taken over the probe, is looking into all possible angles including the purported claim by IM in a Twitter account about carrying out the blasts and any possible link with the issue of alleged atrocities on the Rohangiya Muslims in Myanmar. "We are conducting complete investigations. Three-four people may be involved...with a car. We are conducting detailed investigations," he said.

Asked why no arrests have been made in the case, he said, "Arresting anyone in a hurry is not right. Investigations should go into detail and catch hold of the real culprits."

That said, I did think it was interesting that police are apparently considering the possibility that the attack was perpetrated by Naxalites. Given that the Naxal MO is generally to attack security forces, politicians, etc, I would be rather surprised if this were the case. But I suppose if our only information is that the bombers were "three or four people with a car" that this would include potentially anyone, including the Naxals.